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The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation on Tuesday unveiled a new alternative payment model for rural providers. The Community Health Access and Rural Transformation—CHART—model will give rural communities money upfront to change how they pay for and deliver care to Medicare beneficiaries. It will also provide them with operational and regulatory relief, as well as technical and educational support. (Brady, 8/11)

Providers generally support the Internal Revenue Service's plan to make payments for direct primary-care arrangements tax-deductible but oppose the agency's effort to promote healthcare sharing ministries by treating them like health insurance. The IRS would consider payments for direct primary-care contracts and healthcare sharing ministry memberships "qualified medical expenses" under the proposed rule, making them tax-deductible in many instances. Employers could also pay their employee's direct primary-care or healthcare sharing ministry expenses through health reimbursement arrangements. (Brady, 8/11)

Humana is the latest health insurer to sue the federal government for unpaid Affordable Care Act subsidies intended to reduce healthcare costs for low-income individuals. In a lawsuit filed Monday in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, Louisville, Ky.-based Humana demanded roughly $2 million in cost-sharing reduction subsidies it said it is owed for selling plans on the ACA exchanges in 2017. Humana largely exited the exchange business in 2018. (Livingston, 8/11)